US actors Jeff Goldblum and John Turturro and Moroccan actor/musician Younès Mégri will receive career tributes at the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs November 20-28.
Goldblum and Turturro will also take part in the festival’s on-stage Conversations programme, which will also feature filmmakers James Gray, Cristian Mungiu, Luca Guadagnino, Xavier Dolan, Rian Johnson, Laïla Marrakchi, Gilles Lellouche and Arthur Harari, as well as Italian actress Monica Bellucci.
Goldblum, whose career spans more than five decades, has appeared in films ranging from The Fly, Jurassic Park and Independence Day to Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Thor: Ragnarok and the recent Wicked films. He also performs as a jazz musician with his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
The festival described Goldblum as an actor who has made “his eccentricity his trademark and his unpredictability one of his greatest assets”.
Turturro has worked extensively with Spike Lee on films including Do The Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever and Clockers, and with the Coen brothers on Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
His credits also include Martin Scorsese’s The Color Of Money and television series Monk and Severance. As a filmmaker, he won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 1992 for his directorial debut Mac, before going on to direct Romance & Cigarettes, Fading Gigolo and The Jesus Rolls.
The festival praised Turturro’s acting for combining “remarkable dramatic intensity with a keen sense of the absurd”.
Turturro will also attend Marrakech with Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket In New York, which will receive a gala screening.
Mégri, who began his career as a singer and composer before moving into acting, is known for his performances in Moroccan films including The Moroccan Symphony and The Blind Orchestra.
Conversations programme
The Conversations programme brings international filmmakers and actors together with festival audiences for discussions about their careers, creative processes and experiences across the industry.
Several guests will also present films screening at this year’s festival, including Gray’s Paper Tiger, Guadagnino’s Artificial and Marrakchi’s Strawberries.
Mungiu, who won his second Cannes Palme d’Or in May for Fjord, will reflect on his career, as will Harari, who won an Oscar for co-writing Anatomy Of A Fall with Justine Triet. Harari’s latest directorial feature, The Unknown, premiered in Cannes Competition in May.
Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan, whose credits include Cannes prize-winners Mommy and It’s Only The End Of The World, will discuss his career, while Knives Out director Rian Johnson will explore his approach to genre filmmaking and storytelling.
French actor-filmmaker Gilles Lellouche will look back on his directing career, including Cannes selections Sink Or Swim and Beating Hearts, while Bellucci will discuss her international career and collaborations with filmmakers across different countries and languages.
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